Sports Betting Blog

The 82-game regular season and playoffs in the NBA gives sports bettors that love the game plenty of opportunities to make some serious money on an annual basis. However, the wide range of opportunities could sometimes be a negative for bettors that don't know understand the best approach to betting on the NBA. Here is a look at four basic tips for betting on the NBA.

Narrow Your Focus

While the wide range of opportunities seems like a major advantage, the best approach is to narrow your focus and decide which specific games you want to bet on. The key is to understand that with 32 NBA teams it's difficult to have a deep understanding of each of them. Rather than trying to know everything about all 32 teams you should narrow your focus to a handful of teams that you can put all your time and energy in to following more closely. For example, pick a division like the Atlantic and study the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers very closely. If you can get a strong understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and betting trends for those three teams, you could make more money focusing on each of them than trying to bet on all 32 NBA teams.

Understand Motivation And Fatigue

With as many as three to four games a week, it's also important to understand the impacts of motivation and fatigue. With so many games on the schedule, teams will tend to approach contests with varying degrees of motivation. For example, if the Raptors are trying to catch Boston for first place in Atlantic than they might play their best game when matched up against the Celtics. Meanwhile, they might not have that same motivation against the Los Angeles Lakers two nights after playing Boston. In addition to motivation, it's also important to understand fatigue. If a team is playing three games in four nights, then their motivation for that final game might not be nearly as important as their fatigue level if they are playing a fresh squad. Motivation and fatigue are two underrated factors that you should take in to account.

Home Versus Road Splits

Another factor to consider is the home and road performances o the teams that you are betting on. Most teams tend to perform better at home than on the road. However, there are always degrees to which this is true. Home and road records are tracked throughout the season so it is easy to monitor these splits. Make sure you follow how teams perform both at home and on the road to get an edge when betting on certain teams.

Find The Best Value

Every year there are a number of teams that perform at a high level versus point spreads. These teams offer the best value because they exceed in situations when they are expected to fail. By paying close attention to the team performances versus the spread you can get a better appreciation for which teams are considered overrated and which are underrated from a betting perspective. Teams that lose a lot of close games tend to be underrated from a betting perspective since they usually cover point spreads even in close losses. Team records against the spread are easy to find online so make sure you take the time to look them up in order to gain an edge betting on the NBA.

Bankroll Management

The final factor to keep in mind when betting on the NBA is bankroll management. Understand how much money you can afford to lose, establish a bankroll for betting on the NBA and make sure you don't overstep your parameters. While the point of betting on basketball is obviously to make money, you won't have a chance to make a profit if you are out of money to risk in the first place. If you want to be a profitable NBA bettor then you need to do an excellent job of managing your bankroll over the long term.